Colleen Hroncich
When Daniela Hindman moved to Kansas City, one of the first things she did was look for a Waldorf school. Her timing was fortunate because a group of parents had recently started a Waldorf-inspired homeschool enrichment program. “I found City of Fountains back in 2012 when I was pregnant with my son. We had just moved here from St. Louis, and we had attended the Waldorf school there with our eldest daughter and done the parent-child program with her,” she recalls. “So when we moved here, that was something that we actively searched for. We had loved our experience there and stumbled upon this tiny little seedling in its infancy.”
City of Fountains was initially a once a week homeschool co-op with a parent-child program for very young children, a small kindergarten, and a “grades” program, which is what Waldorf calls the elementary curriculum. Before too long, it became a full-time school Monday through Thursday while continuing the homeschool enrichment program on Fridays
“My understanding is that it was very quickly evident that they needed to create a staff and have more consistency in their rhythm and the people being with the kiddos. So within, I think, that first year of starting it also developed into kind of a more formal program,” Daniela explains. “Some families choose to come to us just on Fridays, and they’re happy with that. And then we also have some families that tack on Friday so that they can have that five-day schedule.”
Spending time outdoors is an important component of a Waldorf education, so the school day usually begins outside at City of Fountains. This gives the children time to burn off some energy before they head inside to spend time on academic work. The main lesson is typically two hours long and is organized into blocks that last between four to eight weeks depending on the subject matter. So for several weeks, the main lesson will focus on a specific subject such as math, science, grammar, or history. Then a new block begins with a different main lesson topic.
After the main lesson, there is a break with more time outdoors and lunch. In the afternoons there are specialty classes, including movement, music, Spanish, and handwork. The handwork classes, such as knitting, weaving, sewing, and woodworking, are a core piece of Waldorf education. There is also time in the day when subjects outside of the main lesson are revisited to ensure the material doesn’t lie dormant and get forgotten.
There are currently 138 students attending City of Fountains, including the parent-child program up through seventh grade. “We have free-standing grades first through fifth grade, and our sixth-seventh continues to be combined. They are the last of our combined classes,” says Daniela. “When we started the grades program and we took that leap, we didn’t have enough students to have those free-standing grades. When our first-grade class was ready to move into second, we absorbed those rising kindergarteners and they became our first combined class. They’ve traveled together since then, and next year will be their final year together.” Parents frequently ask to have high school added, but school leaders want to make sure the program through eighth grade is solid before expanding.
As school choice programs such as vouchers, tax credit scholarships, and education savings accounts spread, places like City of Fountains can become more accessible to a wider range of families. Missouri doesn’t currently have any scholarship programs that could be used at the school, but Daniela says they would consider participating in one. “We would love to give this education to any family that desired it, so we are open to any possibility that would make that an option for families,” she says.